Kale Mohar was seven years old on a car trip from Vernal, Utah to Logan, Utah, when her bladder started acting up.
“I had to go to the bathroom every fifteen minutes,” Mohar said. “On the way back, it only got worse. My mom thought I had a bladder infection, but nope — it was not a bladder infection.”
It was actually type 1 diabetes. A common symptom of type 1 is frequent urination.
There are three types of diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association: type 1, type 2 and gestational. The cause of type 1 is unknown, and the disease affects five percent of people with diabetes.
In type 1 diabetes, the immune system “attacks and destroys the insulin producing cells in the pancreas” and “when glucose cannot enter the cells, it builds up in the blood, depriving the cells of nutrition,” according to the U healthcare library. Those affected must take daily insulin injections and keep track of blood sugar levels.
Mohar, a senior in parks, recreation and tourism, said she has lived with diabetes for 15 years. She said she relies on injections and carries a pump that monitors her blood sugar levels.
“I give insulin relative to how many carbs there are in the foods I eat,” Mohar said. “There’s this misconception with diabetes where people think you have to be on a strict diet. While that’s true for some people, I can eat what I want and when I want. I just have to be careful and make sure I’m getting enough insulin when I do eat things high in carbs.”
However, this wasn’t always an option for Mohar, she said. Her eating experiences were different when she was younger.
“I used to have to take shots when I was little, so my favorite snack was a Diet Coke and bag of beef jerky because they have zero carbs,” she said. “I also used to eat on a strict schedule or my blood would go low. The hardest part about that was when I was younger and had to have a snack at exactly 10 a.m. during school. The other kids thought I was getting special treatment, but I was just trying to keep myself from getting sick.”
In contrast, type 2 diabetes “is a metabolic disorder resulting from the body’s inability to make enough insulin” and “without proper insulin production, the body cannot move blood sugar into the cells,” according to the U health care library.
Type 2 is a chronic disease with no known cure. The exact cause is unknown but may be due to genetics and other physical factors such as overall health, obesity or physical inactivity.
Marissa Villasenor, the public relations specialist at the University Hospital, said the biggest factor in treating type 2 is spreading the message for preventative care.
“The buzzword is ‘prediabetes’ in health care,” Villasenor said. “There are a lot of people out there who are at risk, whether it’s because of their ethnicities or their health in general. We want to make sure those who are prediabetic come in and see one of our physicians to make sure they’re overseeing those steps.”
Unlike type 1 and 2, “gestational diabetes is a condition in which the glucose level is elevated and other diabetic symptoms appear during pregnancy in a woman who has not previously been diagnosed with diabetes,” according to the U health care library.
The symptoms disappear following delivery. This is due to the effects of hormones released during pregnancy on the insulin that is produced. According to the Center for Diabetes Control and Prevention, it affects up to 9.2 percent of all pregnant women in the U.S.
November is National Diabetes Month. Mohar said in previous years she has shared her experience with diabetes via a post on social media.
“Some people have asked me, if I could, would I take away having diabetes,” she said. “My answer is no. Diabetes has built who I am, and it’s shaped my friends and support group. Although I would want to take it away now so it wouldn’t conflict with my future health, diabetes has influenced a lot of who I am. I learned how to be brave, how to persevere, how to be patient and how to appreciate life.”
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